Since November those farmers feeding high-quality, high-protein rations to cows have seen the retail price increase by €60/t, almost 20% in the Republic, with similar increases appearing in Northern Ireland.

Irish Farmers Journals analysis shows that dairy farmers buying high quality feed in November were paying €350/t and latest prices for the same product in early March were already at €410/t. That’s a €60/t lift, or almost a 20% increase in the space of three months. Up North, Kieran Mailey reports livestock rations are set to incur a £20/t increase for April, with several feed merchants hinting at a similar increase for May. Once applied, this will bring a beef growing ration to approximately £325/t (€383/t) and a dairy ration to £350/t (€413/t).

At the same time, some of last year’s grain harvest is just now leaving farmers’ sheds having been sold in November and December at €240/t. Overnight it’s almost doubling in money if sold at the current retail price.

We have to be fair, and so while the current retail prices have risen and continue to rise, some purchasing groups had deals done and feed merchants are standing by the deals at €280/t and €290/t for the allocated time of the deal and the volume. There is no reason they shouldn’t. Most (maybe near 70%) of the near 2m tonnes of dry feed grain bought last harvest was bought at €240/t. The balance of grain was imported at similar prices. More growers we know forward-sold for January and February at around €280/t and are still waiting for that grain to move as mills are trying to stretch lower-priced feed before going back to the current market.

Import numbers

Looking back at prices, feed ingredients imported have moved up and down, but in general were steady until almost late November/early December 2021. Since then we have seen an increase in the price for product imported.

In the last days of November imported wheat and soya bean lifted 10%, with wheat moving to €275/t and soya bean to €339/t. While wheat dropped in February, soya bean has continued to rise through January and February, making the key protein ingredients more expensive.

Maize sourced in Europe or the US was between €210 and €220/t last May. September maize was bought at €285/t and maize today is making closer to €400/t. Wheat at €250/t last September was over to €300/t a month ago, that’s a €50/t increase or 20% plus. Current day prices are closer to €420/t.

So of late grain and key protein ingredients have risen significantly. If these products are in your feed purchased, then there is justification for an increased retail price now. If not, poorer quality ingredients are just rising on the price wave.

Farmers need to be aware that when you buy a bag of starter calf nuts at €13 per 20kg bag, that’s €650/t. Of course, there is extra cost to the feed merchant to create the 20kg bag with handling, bagging, transport etc, but, at €650/t it has to be described as overpriced for the value of ingredients in the bag.

At €13 per bag for a 25kg bag that’s €520/t. These are not made up prices, these are real retail prices farmers are paying. For me these are real exorbitant prices on ingredients bought at much lower prices. Ingredients in these bags were not bought at current market prices.

Ultimately, the farmer has control in terms of purchasing or not and choice in terms of product. That’s business and that’s the risk. The farmer has to feed a calf now with feed costing €650/t for calf starter and beef price at €5/kg, not knowing in two years time what the beef price will be.

We have seen the retail price of feed ingredients rise significantly in the last few weeks as availability is an issue for some products. At this stage there are no cheap ingredients and all last year’s product is almost used.

Ultimately continuous feed price hikes like this will mean stock reductions, exits etc which is the end of the road for a lot of farmers and the service sector suffers as a result. Output prices except for the pig sector are relatively good at the moment and it looks like some are trying to get their slice of the pie. Transparency and quality in the ingredients used in rations has never become more important.